BUDDHISM UNDER THE SUNGAS:
During the period with which we are concerned,
Buddhism was far from encountering the royal favours which it had enjoyed under
the Maurya emperors, in particular from its official benefactor Asoka. It lost as
much as it gained. Its most important losses were the persecution by Pusyamitra
and the dangers incurred by the religion from the monotheism of the Bhagavatas;
to its advantage, however, were the development of Buddhist centres throughout
the sub-continent, the formation of the Central Indian school of sculpture, the
"orthodoxy" of popular piety, finally and above all, the efflorescence
of schools and sects. This last point is of such great importance that a
special chapter will be devoted to it. The other points will be dealt with here
in brief.
THE
PERSECUTION BY PUSYAMITRA:
As we saw earlier, the founder of the Sunga dynasty, Pusyamitra (187 B.C.E -151 B.C.E), was
of brahmin origin. Commander-in-chief of the last Maurya, Brhadratha, he
assassinated his master and seized the power.
He had to subdue Yajnasena,
the king of Vidarbha, who had remained faithful to the former ruling
family; and a double Greek invasion almost caused him to lose the throne. Freed
from external danger by the dissensions among his enemies, he considered his
successes sufficient to warrant two celebrations of the horse sacrifice. Once
peace had returned, he re-established the old Vedic ritual, and governed with
the support of the brahmins.
It is certain that he showed no favour to the
Buddhists, but it is not certain that he persecuted them. Nevertheless,
according to a persistent Buddhist tradition which was shared by all schools,
Pusyamitra is held to be enemy number one of the sons of the Sakya and the most
cruel persecutor of the religion. The following is a chronological list of the
documents which the Buddhists placed in his file :
1. The Vibhasa (T
1545, ch. 125, p. 6556-c), a work by Kasmirian Arhats of the second
century A.D., represents the views of the Sarvisti-vadin-Vaibhasika school. It
claims that after the bloody persecution, Pusyamitra met his death at the hands
of a deity under the Bodhi tree :
"Formerly, there was a Brahmin
king Pu sha yu (Pusyamitra) who detested the Law of the .Buddha : he set fire
to Satras, destroyed Stupas, razed Samgharamas and massacred Bhiksus. In the
frontier-country ( pratyantajanpada ) of
the kingdom of Chia shi mi lo (Kasmira), he destroyed 500 Samgharamas and, in
other places, even more. The wicked Mara cunningly sent him Kumbhandas, Yaksas
and Asuras to support his power in secret, so much so that nowhere was anyone
able to resist him. Gradually destroying the Law of the Buddha, he reached the
Bodhi tree. The deity of that tree, named Ti yu (Satyavak) thought : 'Here is
this foolish and cruel king who wishes to destroy the place where the Bhagavat
Buddhas, as numerous as the sands of the Ganges, vanquished Mara the wicked and
won marvellous Enlightenment'. Immediately, this divinity manifested, by
transformation, a female body of great beauty and prostrated herself before the
king. On seeing this, the king was seized with desire, but as soon as the good
Law-protecting deity had obtained his favours, she killed him and slew his
army, as well as the troop of Asuras; none escaped her blows".
Hence, according to this narration, the brahmin
Holophernes met his death from the blows of a Buddhist Judith at the foot of
the Bodhi tree in Bodh-Gaya.
2. The Legend of Asoka (Divya, pp. 433-4; T
2042, ch. 3, p. I1 la 28- b 26; T 2043, ch. 5, p. 149a 15-b 17; T 99, ch. 25,
pp. 1816 19-182c 2) presents a different and more elaborate version of the same
event, but here again it is a work of Sarvastivadin origin.
"Pusyamitra, deliberating with
his ministers, said to them : 'How can I spread my name in the world? Then
there was a counsellor who replied : 'In the past your predecessor, King Asoka,
erected 84,000 Stupas in Jambudvipa and gave away one hundred koti of gold. As
long as the Law of the Buddha is followed and it remains in the world, his name
will continue to endure. You can, O king, follow his example and erect 84,000
Stupas, then your name will remain in this world for a long time'. Pusyamitra
answered : 'In the past my predecessor was powerful enough to achieve things.
But as for myself, how could I carry out such work? Is there yet another means
of equalling Asoka?.
There was a counsellor with perverse views who
said : 'Whether one does right or wrong, in both cases one equally wins renown.
Because the earlier king had been able to erect 84,000 Stupas, his glory will
last for a long time. If you destroy them, your name will also be transmitted
to future generations'. Pusyamitra assembled the four army units and advanced
as far as the Kukkutarama monastery [in Pataliputra] with the intention of breaking
open the doors bf that monastery. At that moment, the roaring of a lion was
heard at the door of the monastery, and this frightened the king greatly. He
did not dare enter the monastery and went away. Three times he thus returned
without being able to enter. Finally, he summoned the bhiksus and said to them
: 'I wish to destroy the Law of the Buddha. Do you prefer, O bhiksus, to
preserve the stupa or the dwelling of the Samgha?'. The bhiksus answered : 'We
wish to preserve the stupa'. There upon Pusyamitra slew the monks and destroyed
the dwelling of the samgha. Applying these measures progressively as far as the
kingdom of Sakala [in the eastern Punjab] he published the following edict :
'Whoever brings me the head of a Sramana will be rewarded with a gold piece'.
In that country, in a great stupa [var. in the
monastery of the 'King of the Dharma'], lived an Arhat. By his supernormal
powers, he produced several myriad heads of Sramanas and he told the
inhabitants to have them borne to the king. The king heard about that and
wanted to slay that Arhat. However, the latter entered the attainment of
cessation (nirodhasamapatti), and it was impossible to kill him.
Then the king set out and went to the kingdom of
Sthulakosthaka [in Uddiyana] with the intention of destroying the Law of the
Buddha. Within the territory of that kingdom there was a Yak- [Damstranivasin]
who protected the Doctrine of the Buddha. He made this remark : I have received
and I maintain the precepts of the Buddha; I cannot harm anyone at all. How can
I protect and uphold the Law of the Buddha? Formerly, the Yaksa Krmisa asked me
for my daughter, I refused his request because he misbehaved. Now I must give
him my daughter for the sake of the Law of the Buddha'. There was, however, an
extremely sturdy Yaksa who ceaselessly protected King Pusyamitra and, because
of his power, no one could harm the king. However, the Yaksa Damstanivasin
[var. the guardian spirits of Bodhi] lured the Yaksa who protected Pusyamitra
to the Southern Ocean. Then the Yaksa Krmisa seized an enormous mountain and
crushed King Pusyamitra as well as his army. That is why that mountain is called
Sunihita. King Pusyamitra was put to death and the great dynasty of the Mauryas
was extinguished'
According to that version, Pusyamitra, presented
as the last of the Mauryas, destroyed the Kukkutarama monastery in Pataliputra
(identified with the Asokarama) and massacred all its monks. Continuing his
extortions, he arrived in Sakala in the Eastern Punjab. There an Arhat who is
not named but who, judging from other sources, we presume to be Kundopadhaniya,
succeeded in exhausting the king's treasury. Since the latter had put a price
on the heads of the bhiksus, the Arhat magically produced several myriad heads
of Sramanas and, as the king had committed himself to buy them, his reserves of
gold were rapidly used up. Pusyamitra then went to the kingdom of
Sthulakosthaka in Uddiyana. There a Buddhist Yaksa, the official protector of
the Dharmarajika stupa containing one of the Buddha's teeth, and who for this
reason was named Damstranivasin, undertook to end the persecution. However,
since his lay vows prevented him from fighting Pusyamitra himself, he gave his
daughter in marriage to Krmisa, a foreign Yaksa who was not bound by the same
scruples. Krimisa lured Pusyamitra and his army to the Southern Ocean and
crushed them under a mountain.
P.C. Bagchi has identified the two
victorious Yaksas with Indo-Greek kings of the second century : according to him
the Buddhist Damstranivasin was none other
than Menander, and his ally Krmisa, the
Euthydemid Demetrius. However, this identification produces difficulties of a chronological
nature if, as we believe, Demetrius disappeared from the political scene in 167 B.C.E, well before the death of Pusyamitra
fixed according to the calculation adopted here in 151
B.C.E
3. The
Sariputrapariprccha (T 1465, p. 800a-b) is a work of Mahasamghika origin
translated into Chinese between the years 317 C.E
and 420 C.E. It contains, in a more developed and even more marvellous
form, an account of the persecution and death of Pusyamitra, of which this is a
translation :
"After
Upagupta, there was the Mauryan king Asoka; he disseminated the Sutra and
Vinaya in the world. His grandson named Fu sha mi to lo (Pusyarnitra) succeeded
him to the throne. One day, he asked his ministers 'What can I do to make my
name live on?'. A minister said to him : 'There are only two means : to build
84,000 stupas as did the former king [Asoka], renounce the assets of the
kingdom and present them to the Three Jewels : such is the first means. The
second is to do everything to the contrary : destroy the stupas, abolish the
Law, persecute and exterminate the fourfold Samgha : such is the second means.
Thus, good or bad, your name will live on'. The king said : 'I have neither the
power nor the virtues of the former king; I will therefore adopt the second
line of conduct to make a name for myself.”
At the head of four army units, the king
attacked the monastery of Chi chueh (Kukkutarama) in [Pataliputra ]. The
monastery had two stone lions which roared and made the earth quake. Greatly
afraid, the king beat a retreat and returned to the town. The inhabitants
watched him shouting and weeping, and blocked the way. The king's anger
increased and, not daring to return, he forced his officers to slaughter the
inhabitants without warning. Then by means of a decree, he summoned the seven
assemblies; bhiksus, bhiksunis, Sramaneras and Sramaneris, Siksamanas, Sramanas
and Sramanis assembled. The king asked them : 'Which do you prefer me to
destroy, the stupa or the samgharama?. They all answered : 'We would like
nothing to be destroyed, but if that is impossible, destroy the samgharama'.
The infuriated king cried : 'Why should I not do it?. So, he put them all to
death, great and small indiscriminately. Blood flowed in streams. The king
destroyed more than eight hundred samgharamas and stupas.
Lay people prompted by perfect faith raised
their voices, uttered loud cries, lamented and became angry. The king seized
and imprisoned them and had them whipped. Five hundred Arhats went up to Nan shan (Dakshinagiri) where they took refuge, and
since the mountains and valleys [in that place] were deserted and steep, the
army could not reach them. That is why the king, fearing that they would not be
annihilated, proposed rewards and appealed to all the kingdoms, saying : 'If I
obtain a head [of a religious], I will give three thousand pieces of gold as a
reward'. The Arhat Chun t'u po t'an (Kundopadhaniya)
and the people who, through the Buddha's mission, were responsible for
the dissemination [of the Law], produced through transformation innumerable men
who brought innumerable heads of bhiksus and bhiksunis and all of them received
the [promised] gold, [so that] the king's coffers were completely empty. The
king's anger increased. Kundopadhaniya manifested his body and entered the
attainment of cessation (nirodhasamapatti ).
The king became even more terrible, for the Arhat, protected by the power of
the attainment, was invulnerable. The king set fire to 'Sutra Towers'
(suktakutagara ), but as the fire began to burn and swirling flames were about
to reach the sutras, the bodhisattva Maitreya, by means of his supernormal
power (rddyabhijna). secured my (sic) Sutra
and Vinaya and ascended to the Tusita heaven again.
Pusyamitra then went to the Ya ch'ih t'a 'Stupa of the Tooth' (Damstrastupa?). The Yaksa of
that stupa said : 'There is a Yaksa Ch'ung hsing (Krmisa); formerly he had
asked for the hand of my daughter, but I had refused him disdainfully. Today,
when I have sworn to protect the Law, I will give him my daughter so that he
will become my friend'. The Yaksa Krmisa
rejoiced and, grasping a huge mountain in his hand, crushed the king and
his four army units with it, and they all died in an instant. Then the family
of the king and his posterity were completely extinguished.
After that, there was a king whose nature was
excellent. The bodhisattva Maitreya created through transformation three
hundred young men (kumara ) who descended among mankind in order to seek Bodhi.
They consulted the five hundred Arhats [of the Daksinagiri ? ] and received
instruction in the Law. In that land, boys and girls together left the world (pravrajita), and so the bhiksus and bhiksunis
regained their prosperity. The Arhats ascended to the [Tusita]
heaven and recovered the Sutras and Vinayas which they brought back
among mankind.
This version agrees with the preceding one in
giving the Arhat Kundopadhaniya and the two yaksas Damstra[nivasin] and Krmisa
as Pusyamitra's adversaries, but it locates the persecution and military
operations which ensued in Magadhan territory around the Kukkutarama of
Pataliputra and in the mountains of Daksinagiri, to the south of Rajagrha. We
are indeed concerned with a "Stupa of the Tooth", but this is not to
be found in the kingdom of Sthulakosthaka in the Swat valley. No mention is
made of the "Southern Ocean" where Pusyamitra supposedly met his
death. Finally, in the quelling of the persecution, the Bodhisattva Maitreya
intervenes here for the first time.
The story does not supply us with any
information about the king "whose nature was
excellent" and who came "after" Pusyamitra. It might
perhaps be the Indo-Greek king Menander whose Buddhist sympathies are
well-known; but more probably, one of the Kusana sovereigns who, after the fall
of the sungas and Kanvas, supplanted the sakas in North West India, and also
showed themselves to be favourable to Buddhism.
4. The
Manjusrimulakalpa (w. 530-8), of uncertain date, also gives an account
of Pusyamitra's misdeeds and ignominious end, but refers to the sovereign
Gomimukhya "Great proprietor of cattle", Gomisanda "Gomin, the
ox", in allusion to the Vedic sacrifices which were revived under the
Sungas.
"In that inferior age, there
will be a king, Gomimukhya, destroyer of my religion (sasanantadhapako mama). Having seized the east (pracim disam)
and the gates of Kasmir ? (Kasmire dvaram), that madman of evil intent will
destroy viharas and venerable relics (dhatuvara) and will cause the death of
monks of good conduct. Having turned northwards (uttaram- disam), he will meet
his death : Under the blows of an angry Amanusya, he, his officers and his
animal family will be struck by the edge of a mountain, and the wicked one will
go to hell ... After him will come a protector of the earth known as an
adherent of the Buddha (buddhapaksa) : Mahayaksa the very generous one who will
delight in the doctrine of the Buddhas".
5. An echo of the persecution is again found in
the seventeenth century in the History of Buddhism by Taranatha (p. 81) :
"The former chaplain of King
Nemacandra, Pusyarnitra, king of the brahmins, in agreement with other heretics
made war from Madhyadesa to Jalandhara [Kasmir], burned numerous viharas and
killed several monks, although most of them succeeded in finding refuge in
other lands. Pusyamitra died five years later in the north".
The only point over which the sources concur is
the destruction of the Kukkutarma of Pataliputra "in the east". If
there was an encounter between Pusyamitra and the yaksas Damstranivasin and
Krmisa, it is not known exactly where it took place : at Sthulakosthaka in the
Swat valley, at the Daksinavihara on the heights above Rajagrha or in Avanti,
at the gates of Kasmir or in Jalandhara. As for the death of Pusyamitra, it is
in turn located under the Bodhi tree at Bodh-Gaya, on the shores of the
Southern Ocean or somewhere "in the north". To judge from the
documents, Pusyamitra must be acquitted through lack of proof. Nevertheless, as
was remarked by H. Kern, in view of the
varied opinions, it is possible that, in some localities, there may have been
pillages of monasteries, perhaps with the tacit permission of the governors.
The reality of the facts matters little. Whether
or not they were menaced, the Buddhists at the end of the ancient era, deprived
as they were of the royal favours which the Mauryas had bestowed on them and
frightened by the clash of Yavana and Saka arms on the very soil of India,
believed themselves to be persecuted and behaved accordingly. Further on, we
will see the repercussion this state of mind had on the sons of the Sakya.
THE VISNUITE DANGER
Far more than the so-called persecution by
Pusyamitra, the successes of the Visnuite propaganda during the last two
centuries of the ancient era led the Buddhists into danger, and this was all
the more serious in that it was a long time before its threat was assessed.
The rival movement seems to have arisen around
Mathura, in Surasena country, among the Yadava-Satvata-Vrsni population which
deified its heroes or wise men, Vasudeva-Krsna, Narayana, and ended up by
identifying them with the ancient Vedic deity Visnu. Several ruling families
included Bhagavatas "Worshippers of the Lord" in their ranks, and it
was not without reason that the ninth Sunga took the name of Bhagavata (or
Bhaga), and that the first and third Kanvas were respectively called Vasudeva
and Narayana. In the neighbouring kingdoms, coinage reveals the existence of a
Haridatta among the Almoras, of a Bhagavatamahadeva "Mahadeva,
the worshipper of the Lord" among the Audumbaras, of a Visnudeva in
Kanauj.
The success of the Visnuite movement in central
India, in approximately the second century B.C.E, is attested by a sheaf of
concordant evidence. Already under the first Mauryas, the ambassador Megasthenes remarks that "while
Dionysus (Siva) is worshipped in the mountain, Heracles (Krsna) is worshipped
on the plain, especially by the Surasenoi (Surasena), an Indian people who
possess two towns, Methora (Mathura) and Kleisobora (Krsnapura)" (Arrian,
Ind., VIII, 4). It is a fact that the region of Mathura has yielded ancient
Visnuite images : the Balarama (or Samkarsana)in Lucknow Museum bearing a club
in his' right hand and a plough in his left; the Heracles in the Calcutta
Museum representing Hercules overwhelming the lion of Nemea (Mathura, pl. 476).
On a Gandhiran intaglio there is a representation of a four-armed Visnu
receiving the homage of an Indo-Scythian king.
In about 150 B.C.E, the grammarian
Patanjali makes several references to the Visnuite religion in his Mahabhasya :
he speaks of Krsna and his companion Samkarsana(1 1,2,24); he mentions a "Janardana, fourth", an allusion to the
group formed by Krsna and his peers, Samkarsana, Pradyumna and Aniruddha (VI,
3, 5); he records two musical performances in the temples of Rama (Balarama or
Samkarsana) and Keiava or Krsna-Visnu (11, 2, 34); finally, he notes the
existence, in his own time, of mimes and plays representing the murder of Kamsa
by Vasudeva (111, 1.26).
The inscriptions bear witness to the expansion
of the Visnuite cult, not only in Vidisa and Mathura, cradle of the religion,
but also on the east coast and in the Deccan.
In the year 14 of the fifth Sunga, King
Kasiputra Bhagabhadra (the Bhadraka of the Purana), the Greek Heliodorus, son
of Dio lived in Taxila and was named ambassador to the Sunga court by the great
king Antalikita (Antialcidas, ca 125-100 B.C.E). As a devout Bhagavata, he
erected in Vidisa (Besnagar) a pillar with a Garuda in honour of Visudeva
(Visnu), god of gods, and recalled on that occasion the
"three immortal principles (trini amutapadini ] which lead to salvation :
moderation (dama), generosity (tyaga) and diligence (apramada)"
(LUDERS, 669).
In the year 12 of the ninth Sunga, Bhaga or
Bhagavata, a certain Bhagavata, son of Gotami, erected a second pillar with a
Garuda, still in Vidisa, near the great Temple of the Lord (Vasudeva) (Arch.
Surv. Ind.An. Rep. 1913-14, p. 190 sq.).
A little later, in Ghasundi (district of
Chitorgarh in Rajputana), a certain Gajayana, son of Parasari, built a
Pujasilaprakara, a votive wall for the sacred stone of the Narayanavataka, in
honour of Samkarsana and Vasudeva "Invincible lords and supreme sovereigns"
(LUDERS 6,).
In the reign of Sodisa the great satrap of
Mathura, who is believed to have been a contemporary of Azilises (10 B.C.E-5
C.E.), "the statues of the fives heroes, Lords of the Vrsni family
(bhagavatam Vrsininam pamcaviranam pratimah) were installed in a stone temple
(Sailadevagrha) in Mora (in the neighbourhood of Mathura) (EI, XXIV, p. 194).
These are clearly the Visnuite heroes Baladeva, Akrura, Anadhrsti, Sarana and
Viduratha. - At the same time and place, a certain Vasu erected a gateway
(torana) and a balustrade (vedike) in the great temple of the Bhagavat
Vasudeva, in the hope that the Bhagavat Vasudeva, propitiated by that offering,
would show his favour to the great satrap Sodisa (EI, XXIV, p. 208).
At Nanaghat, in Northern Maharastra, Queen
Nayanika, the wife of the Lord of the Deccan Sitakarna (ca
27-17 B.C.E), invoked the gods Samkarsana and VAsudeva, as well as the
old Vedic deities such as Indra and Varuna (LUDERs 1, 1 12). Her example was to
be followed by several of her descendants.
Laconic though these indications are, they show
that the grammarian Patanjali and the pious donors were familiar with the moral
doctrines of Visnuism and that, for example, the three immortal principles
recalled by Heliodorus are in line with the moral homilies of the Mahabharata
(V, 43, 22; XI, 7, 23), particularly the Bhagavadgita (XVI, 1-3). The
Bhagavatas of the second century B.C.E seem to be fully aware of the doctrine
of the vyciha or manifestations of Visnu, as it is formulated in the Mahabharata
(XII, 39, 73) : "From the upper form of Visnu,
called Vasudeva, would emerge the Samkarsana bound to cosmic matter by the
individual soul; from the Samkarsana would spring the Pradyumna which
corresponds to the organ of the cosmic mind (manas); from the Pradyumna would
come the Aniruddha, cosmic egotism (ahamkara). In the navel of the Aniruddha
grew a lotus in which was born Brahma to whom all moving and unmoving beings
owe their existence". These vyuha moreover, are the transposition
into the cosmic level of genealogical relationships, real or imaginary, in the
history of the Yadava-Satvata-Vrsni clans : Vasudeva is Krsna himself,
Samkarsana is his eldest brother Balarama, Pradyumna is his son and Aniruddha,
his grandson.
First for their kin, then for their sectaries,
these heroes, deified and identified with Visnu, are the object of exclusive
attachment which was soon to turn to total devotion (bhakti). The bhagavata
adherent turns from the external world in order to commune with himself and
find the divine presence within himself. This sublime attainment is most often
conceived as an equation between the soul and God enabling one to see oneself
in all beings and to see all beings within oneself. Personal effort, or yoga, is
indispensable for finding that union, but does not constitute the only means of
salvation. God, in this case Visnu, aids the devotee with his grace ( prasada); he works continually for the welfare of
the world and, in the event of imminent danger, he becomes partially or wholly
incarnate in the form of an animal, a man, a hero or a god in order to go to
the help of threatened beings. These divine descents, called avatara, are
indeterminate in number. Ten main ones are known to us; among them is Krsna of
the Yadava tribe, a native of Mathura.
As far as we are concerned, this is the first
time that Buddhism was confronted with a living theist doctrine positing in
precise terms the problems of God, the soul and their interrelationship. It is
not that India had never posited them before, since in the ancient Upanisad all
possible and imaginable solutions to philosophical and religious questions are
set out in a more or less meaningful form. However, early Buddhism arose in an
environment which was alien to those speculations or, if it was aware of some
of them, it relegated them immediately to those indeterminate points (avyakrtavastu) about which it is useless, even
dangerous, to express an opinion. Throughout the Buddhist canon, there is only
a single passage (Anguttara, I, p. 174) in which the problem of the Lord God is
considered, and it is resolved merely in the negative : "Those who attribute
everything to the creation of the Lord (issaranimmana)
have no further desire for action, make no further effort to do this or
avoid that". As for the Buddhist attitude regarding the soul, it is - to
say the very least - resolutely anti-spiritualist, since all the phenomena of
existence are said to be transitory, painful and devoid of substance (anatman).
When Visnuite propaganda put theism and
spirituality back in the forefront of actuality, the Buddhists were compelled
to reconsider the problem. They began by getting information about the theories
of their adversaries, without trying to minimize their importance. To the old
list of heretical sects drawn up in the Anguttara
(111, p. 276), the canonical commentaries (Mahaniddesa, I, p. 89) were
henceforth to add the sectaries of Vasudeva and Baladeva. The great Buddhist
scholars were fully informed about the implications, whether Visnuite or
Sivaite, of Hindu theism and Brahmanical speculations concerning the Trimurti :
Brahma, Visnu and Siva. Here, we will merely give as an example three passages
from the Upadesa of Nagarjuna :
"Mahesvara, the Great Lord,
has eight arms (astabhuja), three eyes (trinetra) and his mount is the white
bull [Nandin]. Visnu, 'Universal Hearing', has four arms; he holds a conch
(Sankha) and a disk (cakra), he is mounted on the golden-winged bird [Garuda].
The god Kumara holds a cock (kukkuta) , handbell (ghanta ),a red standard
(lohitapataka) and his mount is a peacock (Sikhagata)" (T 1509, ch. 2, p.
73a). - "After the Kalpa's fire, everything is empty; then, through the
causal power of beings' merits, winds arrive from the ten regions and, colliding
and touching, can uphold the great waters. On the waters, there is a man with a
thousand heads, two thousand arms and two thousand feet, named Visnu. From his
navel issues a precious lotus with a thousand leaves and golden in colour, the
brilliance and rays of which are like the combined light of ten thousand suns.
On that lotus, there is a man seated, his legs folded, who in turn possesses
infinite light. He is named Brahma, the king of the gods. That Brahma mentally
gives birth to eight sons, and those eight sons engender the sky, earth and
men. Brahma has completely eliminated all desire and all hatred" (Ibid.,
ch. 8, p. 116~)-. "There are gods who claim supremacy and who, in their
arrogance, assert that they are the creators of the beings and things of heaven
and earth. Thus Brahma, the king of the gods, said to the other Brahmanas : 'It
is I who created you'. The god Visnu said: 'All the rich, noble and glorious
men in the universe are portions of my person. It is I who created the universe
and it is I who destroy it (cf. Giti, VII, 6). The creation and destruction of
the universe is my work'. By speaking thus, those gods destroy the doctrine of
the dependent origination of all phenomena" (Ibid, ch. 10, p. 128a).
Many similar passages could be quoted in other
Buddhist works such as the Mahaparinirvanasutra
(T 374, ch. 19, p. 476b), the Madhyamaka- Sastra by
Nagarjuna (T 1564, ch. I, p. I b), the Satasastra of Aryadeva (T 1569,
ch. 1, p. 168a) as well as his Treatise on the Nirvana of the Heretics (T 1640,
p. 157c), the Commentary on the Satasastra by the Parthian Chi tsang (T 1827,
ch. 1, p. 244a), etc.
It now remains for us to discover to what degree
the Buddhists allowed themselves to be influenced by the rival propaganda.
Distinctions need to be made. The great scholars of the Mahayana and the
Hinayana, versed as they were in the study of canonical texts, showed
themselves to be resolutely unwilling to accept spirituality or creationist
theism, whether it was of Visnuite or Sivaite origin. Not content with
repeating afresh the refutation of the Atman - see, for example, chapter IX of
the Kosa - they did not hesitate to attack the gods of Hinduism and the
philosophical concepts which supported them.
The verses cited by Nagarjuna in his Upadesa (T
1509, ch. 2, p. 730) say in substance that the wise man, whatever his
particular devotion for the unpretentious minor gods may be, does not believe
in God and does not rely on God. The gods of Hinduism, those of painting, sculpture,
tradition and hymns, always appeared armed, and that warlike attitude can only
be explained by fear and wickedness. In fact, they can do nothing for men : those
who revere them do not avoid suffering or death; those who scorn them may well
enjoy good fortune on earth. The truth is that in this world the destiny of
mankind has no other explanation than action which automatically finds maturation,
and gods play no part in that.
The argument developed by Vasubandhu in his Abhidharmakosa (11, pp. 3 1 1-13;
V, p. 19) is more philosophical. It can be summarized as follows : To say that
things occur through a single cause, or through God, Mahadeva or Vasudeva, is
not acceptable for several reasons :
1. If
things occurred through a single and immutable cause, they would all occur at
the same time, whereas everyone knows that they occur successively. If the
order of their occurrence in time depended on causes outside God, God would no
longer be the single cause. –
2. God creates for his own satisfaction or for
the satisfaction of creatures. If the creates for his own satisfaction, that is
because there is something to be gained, and he is not god. If he creates for
the satisfaction of others, how is it possible to explain that the latter
remain subject to all kinds of suffering?
3. To assert the creative activity of God is
gratuitously to posit an invisible and uncontrollable cause, while neglecting
the visible causes the efficacy of which can be ascertained at any time.
The clarity of this position adopted on the
philosophical level in no way prevented good neighbourliness between the
Buddhists and the Vaisnavas. Both religions have many points in common : each
gives the same importance to ahimsa, and the doctrine of the Visnuite avatara
has its counterpart in the Buddhist concept with regard to the Buddhas of the
past which is attested in the canonical texts (cf. Mahapadana Suttanta, Digha,
11, pp. 2-8) and depicted on the ancient sculptures of Bharhut and Sanci.
Although they were still very close to the original Buddhism, certain Hinayanist
sects, particularly that of the Mahasamghikas whose presence in Mathura is
confirmed by the Lion Capital (Konow, p. 48), were to some extent influenced by
Visnuite doctrines : the Lokottaravada which proclaims the transcendence of the
Buddha was possibly provoked and at any rate favoured by the devotional
atmosphere with which the Bhagavatas, in Saurasena country or Avanti, surrounded
their chosen deities.
However, it is particularly the Mahayanists who
were influenced by Hindu theism; in the Lotus of the Good Law, the Buddha, who
impartially displays identical concern for all creatures, is the brother of the
Narayana who declares in the Gird (IX, 19) : "I make no difference between
all creatures; none do I hate, none do I love", and it is symptomatic that
the Lotus so often qualifies the manifestations of the deeds of the Buddhas as
vyuha (pp. 117, 146, 209, 219, etc.). A curious Buddhist text which has yet to
be edited, the Suklavidarsana does not hesitate to explain certain theories by
worldly quotations and to resort to the authority of the Gita. Finally, the
great Buddhist scholars such as Aryadeva (T 1640, p. 157c), Chi tsang (T 1827,
ch. I, p. 244a), P'u kuang (T 1821, ch. 7, p. 140a) were the first to note the
strange resemblance which connects the Mahayanist theory of the Three Bodies of
the Buddha with the Visnuite and Sivaite lucubrations on the three bodies of
Isvara.
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